SURVIVOR SPORTSTER
An American who wanted to buy a new motorcycle in 1969 had a lot of choices.
Honda was building the CB750, BSA had both a twin and a triple on offer, Kawasaki was selling its iconic H1 500cc 2-stroke, and Norton was selling the Commando twin. Triumph Bonnevilles were popular, as were Ducati singles and BMW twins. Tom Myers walked past all these alluring imports and bought one of the 5,100 Harley XLCH Sportsters produced that year. “My Dad was always a Harley guy,” he explains. More than fifty years later, Tom still has that XLCH.
“My first bike was a Yamaha YDS-2, but I lusted after a Sportster since I was very young. After the YDS-2, I had a Sportster, bought used, but it was stolen. Understandably, I was pretty upset. My parents helped me buy this 1969 Sportster as a replacement for the one that was stolen.”
Survivor
Tom Myers’ XLCH is unusual in many different ways, besides being a one-family survivor. To start with, Tom bought it to use as transportation, and chose options based on functionality. At the time, Harley was building two different Sportster versions: the XLH (4-gallon tank as standard, touring tires, a 12-volt battery and coil ignition and an electric starter) and the XLCH (peanut tank standard, magneto
